The significance of the landscape

Plumcake Mound

This mound, which gained its unfortunate name from early antiquarians attempting to describe its shape, is slightly smaller than the neighbouring Fresh Knowe.

Measuring 22 metres in diameter, and surviving to three metres in height, Plumcake Mound is found beside the Harray loch, immediately beside the current car park and across the road, to the north-east of the Ring of Brodgar.

Like the other large knowes in the area, Plumcake Mound is thought to date from between 2500 and 1500 BC.

It was investigated in 1850 by the local antiquarian, George Petrie, who went on to excavate the neighbouring Fresh Knowe in 1853.

Plumcake Mound was found to contain two stone cists, one containing a pot, the other a steatite (soapstone) urn. Both these artefacts contained cremated remains.